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THE MERCHANTS’ EXCHANGE 


IN FAVOR OF THE 


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SEP 12 . >910 



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By W. M. CORKY, 

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SEPTEMBER 17, 1860. 


CINCINNATI: 

RAILROAD RECORD OFFICE: 

1860. 


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SEP 13 >910 ( 


TO THE PEOPLE OF CINCINNATI. 


At the Cincinnati Merchants’ Exchange two meetings of the citizens 
were held to hear the three addresses of the Cumberland Gap, Knoxville 
and Nashville railroad delegations. Another meeting took place on the 
17th of September, 1860, at which Resolutions were offered by Pollock 
Wilson, setting forth the losses and perplexities of the city from want of 
’ direct railroad connection with the Gulf; but only proposing that a com¬ 
mittee should be raised to go South, and examine and report upon the 
routes as early as possible. The Knoxville delegation had stated that 
they came to open connection with the Ohio Valley at Cincinnati first, and 
then to Louisville, and that if they did not get an immediate response 
here, they would go to Louisville, and if acceptable terms were offered 
for a connection with the Gulf, via Knoxville, they would close with them 
and go home at once. 

Having heard the explanations made by all the delegates, I thought it 
best to move an amendment to the resolutions, in favor of the Knoxville 
route; more especially because it had positively been asserted that a char¬ 
ter already existed for the Union Railway Company , for which the Cin¬ 
cinnati Commissioners might open stock books, and with $5,000 cash the 
Company elect officers and organize with capacity for five millions capi¬ 
tal, and power to borrow money to build a railroad from Cincinnati to Ten¬ 
nessee in the direction of Knoxville. Both that charter and the charter 
of the Knoxville and Kentucky Railroad authorized consolidation with 
eachother, giving the continuous line from here there; and the Knoxville 
delegates pledged themselves to build their sixty miles of Road to their 
State boundary, leaving but eighty miles to build as far as Danville where 
the Covington road will terminate unless we contribute to it such part of 
the two millions oxpense as may be necessary. Thanks to the labors of 
railroad writers and engineers, the facts of the case are also made pretty 
plain, and besides, if the Union Company was organized, its surveyors 
and officers governed by the inexorable laws of self-interest, would select 
the best practicable route and construct the road on it, no matter what a 
committee of citizens might report. It is further true that such a work 
could probably get aid from the city by the re-investment of certain assets 
in railway companies, growing out of former advances to them under the 
“million loan’' law, &c. It was not doubtful that these precarious claims 
which have been almost abandoned to the clutches of the needy and un¬ 
deserving, would be a dead loss unless somebody was interested in looking 
them up and taking legal steps for their recovery. Therefore, I moved as 
follows in addition to the original resolutions : 

1 Resolved, That this meeting is in favor of a Southern connection by Railroad via Knox¬ 
ville with the Gulf, and believe it worth more economically, socially and politically than any 
other road. 

2 Resolaed , That we favor a transfer by the City of all her railroad property to trustees to 
be re-invested by them for her benefit in the Railroad line from Danville to the Tennessee 
line, and that our merchants, manufacturers, and real estate owneis. have the deepest 
pecuniary interest in the completion of the Charleston and Cincinnati Railroad. 

3 Resolved , That as Dr. Drake was the author of the project in 1?56, his fellow citizens 
may now have the double honor of claiming.that Cincinnati originated and completed the 
mostj important road in the world, for it is net only the tap root of her prosperity, and an 
outlet from the Ohio Valley, which is richeWn Corn than the Nile, but it is the imperishable 
bond of union between the Western and Southern States. 

4 Resolved, That this meeting is in favor of the immediate organization of The Kentucky 
Union*Railroad Company, to construct the road to the Tennessee liue. 

5 Resolved , That Council be requested to provide for taking the sense of the citizens on 
the question of re-investing the railroad property of the City in that Company, or somo 
other in the same direction. 



SPEECH. 


HE 2111 

•A i "3 Cg 


It will be seen by the amendment, that instead of sending 
out committees to inquire and report, I propose that we de" 
chare at once for the Knoxville route ; also, that certain assets 
of the city in existing railroads shall be applied as our public 
part of the expense to help private subscriptions ; and finally, 
that having found the proper route, and indicated all our 
means, we should promptly organize the road under the Union 
Railway charter already in existence, and adapted to our 
purpose and under our control. These new features put an 
intelligent face on the resolutions, and show that we mean 
business, and that we understand how it ought to be done, 
and, if there be no mistake, accomplish precisely what is due 
from us, the thinkers, to our friends and fellow-citizens, and 
all others who rely upon our judgment. 

Every few years, there is a crisis in the destiny of great 
communities. We have passed through several of that kind, 
and for a long time successfully, but latterly not so well; and 
by several radical mistakes have lost our name of the Queen 
City, and our position as head of the Mississippi valley. The 
departed sceptre has gone from Cincinnati to St. Louis, where 
the census shows a glut of population, but not many thou¬ 
sands more than ours; and a corresponding activity in real 
estate and commerce. Her town lots are higher than ours, 
which means, they are more in demand ; her commerce is 
larger, which signifies more rapid and important exchanges. 
There is, however, no comparison as yet, nor probably ever 
will be in the products of agriculture and manufactures. In¬ 
deed, looking at the immense error of Missouri in advancing 
twenty-five millions to railroads, and chartering banks whose 
fatal paper promises must collapse and devaste her labor to 
beggary, without any escape, I expect to see the gilded bubble 
burst, and carry down the fortunes of the city; sooner or 
later, it is sure to come. We have passed through such an 
experience several times, and we understand the consequences 
of our own knowledge. Chicago has changed hands for very 
much the same cause. Those who built it do not own it, but 



4 


have been sacrificed to the mania of paper money, the inevi¬ 
table inflation of real estate, and the intoxication of trade. 
She has learned a lesson, which is required by all beginners, 
and which neither precept nor example can prevent. St. 
Louis is treading the via lethi semel calcanda omnibus herself. 
Another set of men of business will arise from the ruins, and 
like her noble sister cities, she will commence then a true ca¬ 
reer of great prosperity, adapted to undoubted and abundant 
resources. The sceptre, by the common course of events 
which belongs to her would therefore come back to Cincin¬ 
nati. Yet Cincinnati need not wait for them ; she has but to 
improve the present golden moment to become Queen again. 
She has long been laboring under bad advisers, careless 
agents, and small officers. Her citizens have put their trust 
in themselves too little, and in schemers and charlatans too 
much, and her widow’s weeds and discrowned head attest 
their errors and her sorrows. With respect to her prosperi¬ 
ty ; its main spring, after the production of wealth, has been 
the facility of transportation in the right direction. But 
while her mechanics, merchants, manufacturers, and the in¬ 
numerable farmers who are her tributaries have done wonders 
of industry and produced mines of wealth, her thinkers have 
gone always wrong in finding and securing a market. And 
they never were further from the right than now. Let us 
look at two or three things in the past, and we can better feel 
the present responsibility. 

For twenty years we have held erroneous views of our re¬ 
lation to the railroad system of the United States. The dis¬ 
cussions on the subject have been meagre and dull, and not 
accessible to the mass of the people. Our politics authorize 
the caucus to choose themselves for public service, or if pos¬ 
sible, men of less capacity; and in office they are content; 
out of it, they do only one kind of business, which is heating 
the passions of the voters, without addressing a word to their 
understandings. All truth, and public spirit and individual 
talent, perish under such auspices. The railroad system, of 
course, took the wrong direction, and has now been pursuing 
it since 1840. Being on the surface, one would have expected 
the contrary; but if with our eyes wide open, we have been 
running our railroads East and West instead of North and 
South, what is to be looked for when we go into that under¬ 
ground business of such great magnitude to cities, sewerage / 
My word for it, for twenty years we will be attempting to 


5 


carry our dirty water up hill instead of down, and we shall 
pursue the same war against gravitation which we have so 
loudly declared and so foolishly prosecuted by railways con¬ 
structed in violation of common sense. If our million of 
public subscription, and our millions of private subscription 
had been properly applied to reach the cotton States, which 
want every thing but gold and silver, in the piles of which 
they are now in some danger of famine, the Eastern cities 
would have been at Cincinnati with their connections just as 
soon, and would have spent much more treasure in securing 
our trade. As if our city had been a tree planted on a rock 
instead of the richest alluvion, we have hacked and dug the 
sod, and fostered the surface roots with great expense and to 
such barren purpose, that it has wasted its strength in leaves 
and short crops, instead of pushing down towards the earth’s 
center many feet through the richest compost, that great 
natural tap root which strikes straight for the moisture, min¬ 
erals, salts and other vegetable diet, which makes the top 
lofty, the trunk strong, and the fruit exuberant. As the 
roots are, so are the branches, and therefore our tree has 
been ruined by empirics, w ? ho would destroy, or make alive, 
according to superficial reasons and observations. If we had 
had any notion of cause and effect, we should have learned 
something from the very efforts of the Eastern cities to get 
into the Mississippi valley. They had the sea before them 
and the mountains behind them, and to arrive at the fat 
lands, it was their necessity to expend—Boston over sixty 
millions, New York twice or thrice as much, Philadelphia and 
Baltimore together, the same, or even more. And in an evil 
hour, they persuaded us to help them, and not ourselves, by 
diverting attention from the South, which w r as our California, 
as the West was theirs. Indeed, we not only helped them, 
but mistook their character; we thought them friends in every 
thing ; but they are and ever must be our rivals in both trade 
and manufactures. We have to compete with all those cities 
on Fifth, Pearl, and Main and Walnut streets, in our own 
town, yet we have no customer anywhere to whom we have 
not given them an introduction, and offered to ride and tie. 
More than Know-Nothingism, even more than heavy taxes, 
this obvious mistake has overweighted us in the race, if we 
may borrow that phrase from our National Fair. The real 
truth is very humiliating, but we must allow w T e did not un¬ 
derstand, and have not understood, and now generally mistake 


G 


our obvious interests, so far as they are dependent on the 
channels of distribution. A A , , 

It is quite right to refer to a kindred subject, to shew by 
an example of the same sort, what we endure from mal-ad- 
ministration, and who they are who do it. The case of the 
Louisville and Portland Canal at the falls of the Ohio river, 
for twenty years has been a grievance of the first order to 
the great States of the West. The river is our natural chan¬ 
nel of business with the South, and theirs with ourselves, but 
as we have put our railroad well-being into the hands of the 
enemy, we have done no better with our noble river. The 
limestone ledge which obstructs the channel there, makes a 
fall of twenty-five feet in the river in a short distance, at low 
stages of water. It is, of course, impassable a great part of 
the year ; and a canal has been made by a corporation around 
the Falls, which has got, probably, three millions of dollars 
for tolls on the water craft of our Western people within 
thirty y^ars.* It cost less than a million ; the United States 
subscribed for one-fifth of the stock, and its exactions have 
been so enormous, that the dividends of that proportion have 
some time since made the canal federal property, under a 
Kentucky law of 1842, authorizing an absorption of the pri¬ 
vate shares. Consequently, there is a nominal corporation ; 
but on some pretence of individual interest, directors are 
elected, who are managers of the work under a law of Ken¬ 
tucky, and are custodians not only of the canal, but of its 
treasury; and nobody else interferes, least of all, Cincinnati. 
The tolls continue to be exacted, and Congress has at last 
done something about it, which has not transpired, as it is 
among the acts of the last session, touching a choice piece of 
property in the hands of Louisville directors. The under¬ 
standing is, however, that it is left in their hands, and is to 
be overhauled and rebuilt or remoddled on somebody’s plan, 
who is not at all known to, or responsible to any one east of 
the Falls. Another very gross and fatal mistake to have 
been committed or permitted by our Congressmen, and yet 
they all three probably voted lor it, and had an idea they 
v 7 ere advancing the interests of their constituents. They 
were probably beguiled by some of the friends of the canal; 

* Locks 185 feet long, about half the length of first class steamers. Canal too narrow for 
boats to pass too shaliovv to get through often in less than two or three days ; badly located, 
so as to endanger craft trying to get into and out of it. Tolls so high that a Cincinnati and 
St. Louis boat paying the lawful 5i) cents a ton, passage, would pay lfi per cent, on total cost 
of boat; and if six years old, toll equals cost! 



7 


or forgot that they represented Cincinnati, or may be, had 
heard of General Pillow’s celebrated plan of fortification in 
MexicD, and amplified it; in short, as it was immortal, made 
it amphibious. He had tried it on land, and they thought 
w T ell of it on water. The General dug his ditch within his 
wall instead of the outside, so that his soldiers could not get 
to the wall, but the enemy could, which was a bold experi¬ 
ment for any genius not truly original. And to make a frank 
avowal, it is not said even by his enemies, that the great fame 
he has secured has been dimmed by any sacrifices. So much 
for that departure from the beaten track; and all honor to 
him who has given war a new discovery, not stained with 
blood. He may have been inviting the foe—lying in wait for 
him, preparing his mouse-trap to catch him. I trust there is 
some such explanation; and I am sure I wish we may get off 
with the same impunity from the bold experiment of our three 
representatives upon the Falls Canal. Have they not taken 
the ground (though to the natural eye very much like taking 
water) that if you want to keep that work always open and 
in good order, you have simply to give bodily possession of 
the concern, with the keys of the exit and entrance locks, 
into the hands of Louisville ? It is true that she is directly 
interested the other way, and might be tempted or distressed 
into doing something irregular; but then if she should close 
the canal, why we can be outside and make an outcry. That’s 
true ; but what can we do if the thing being apparently all 
fair, and the business of repairing in progress, it should un¬ 
fortunately happen that an awkward blow of the pick, or the 
force (quite unexpected) of a blast had broken the partition 
shell, and let the water in at the wrong place, or out ? And 
it would be a worry if that happened to happen at the critical 
time of low river, and a great deal to do ! I see no escape 
from that reshipment of freights, and the porterage of two 
miles and a half, which costs from a quarter to a dollar a 
load, according to draymen and circumstances. All that 
might become vexatious; in fact, very much so, if Mr. Guth¬ 
rie should inexorably and simultaneously adhere to the estab¬ 
lished etiquette of the Louisville and Nashville railroad about 
precedence among shippers. And then at Nashville, we 
might find a toil-gate as grievous as the two we left behind at 
Louisville, because drayage is not uniformly in proportion to 
distance. In short, a plain man would have preferred that as 
high as Pittsburgh, at any rate, the control of the canal 


8 


should have been, more or less, exercised by the up-river 
people. Cincinnati would have slept easier for several months 
past if her Senator and Representatives had been less confi¬ 
ding and adventurous. But then, the title of the act was 
probably “ A bill to enlarge, etc.” and what more did we 
want ? It is very certain that Mr. Gurley, of the second 
district, has met his constituents with eclat at the tent and 
pole, corner of Eighth and Mound streets, and amidst the 
burning of tar., the flight of rockets, and report of ordnance, 
has held up his services in the late canal enlargement as his 
principal Congressional trophy. And his audience applauded. 
I always thought there was a heavy yoke upon our commerce 
to be broken in that business, and three or four hundred 
steamboat captains and officers published a great deal about 
it in the Cincinnati press. I have heard of no dissatisfaction. 
I presume they will go to the polls and vote for their tried 
representatives just renominated, and perhaps they may get 
a third or fourth term, if they will only help the Louisville 
folks to connect themselves with Knoxville, and prevent any 
such deceptive alliance with Cincinnati.* 

But enough of these desultory things. The crisis at hand 
does not need any aid of analogy or contrast. Its own claims 
are enough. We must be up and doing. Perhaps, however, 
an illustration of the subject-matter involved might make it 
impressive. Suppose, then, you take the railroad map of the 
United States. You will see it covered with a net of rail 
tracks, as thickly interlaced as the spider’s web, except at a 
spot near the center. Just beneath the State of Ohio, to the 


* Mr. Gurley’s other card for re-election is a perfect Trojan horse ; only that he has borrow¬ 
ed from the Illiad unhappily. His bill from the Printing Committee, establishing a Govern,' 
merit printing office, instead of destroying an enemy, will be sure to become the infernnl ma 
chine to its friends , no genius ever yet invented such a dangerous engine for the overthrow 
of his country. Yet he was as much applauded by his constituents for that as for the gift to 
Louisville of the Falls Canal. And indeed his ingenuity in that matter has besn exceeded. 

Senator Pugh in April, 1850, proposed a worse project. By his bill to improve the navi¬ 
gation at the Falls, he gave the Canal to Kentucky , and $300,000 if she would take it. Toll3 
to be laid on Western commerce to pay proper expenses, repairs, and $50,Out! per annum to 
enlarge the Canal. A superintendent was provided, and the United States could assume the 
possession, etc. This was the first aspect of the bill, which was double. The other was, that 
the U. S. Secretary of the Treasury should subscribe $l,000,i'00 to a private corporation at 
Jeffersonville, who had got a charter from Indiana, and secured the co-operation of Mr. 
Bright, who was located there. Tha United States, with the assent of Indiana Legislature , 
might buy the Canal at cost, after ten years, less the million, without interest. This was a 
scheme to give up works which should be made at the cost of all the people, to the State of 
Kentucky and to an Indiana private corpoi’atian, and allow them to continue grievous tolls 
on commerce which should be free, out of which, in prowortion to the public loss, would be 
the gains of speculators. The colleagues of Mr. Pugh were then Pendleton and Groesbeck, 
but I never heard that they resisted. With several Cincinnati papers, they probably gave it 
their support. Representative Day, M. C., tried to get a judicious enlargement af the Falla 
Canal, and opposed Senator Pugh’s project. In 1851 Messrs. Gaorge Graham and Samuel 
Goodin did all they could, as a commitaee from Cincinnati, to have the Canal made a freA 
Government work on the Indiana side. 



9 


south, there is a white surface of uncertain shape, hut cover¬ 
ing half a hundred thousand square miles, perhaps thirty 
millions of acres. It contains the western half of Virginia, 
the east half and more of Kentucky, (except the Covington 
road) and a large portion of Middle Tennessee. It is tra¬ 
versed obliquely from east to west by the Cumberland moun¬ 
tains, and its great rivers are the Cumberland and Kentucky, 
the Savannah and Tennessee. It is the grazing region which 
the mountains lift up in the middle with their plethora of mar¬ 
ble, iron, zinc, copper and coal, but cotton grows on the 
southern slope to some extent, and corn and other cereals on 
the northern. It is one of the very finest of all portions of 
the earth for air and water and landscape. It incites the re¬ 
sidence and lavishly rewards the industry of man. Its inte¬ 
rior seclusion proves that it has not yet been made to yield 
its best productions, and like a still larger region round about, 
especially the whole southern country to the salt water, it is 
destitute of skilled labor and of manufactures. It loves its 
ease and its agriculture, and it does not much vex the land, 
and less the sea. All the access to it from any side must be 
artificial; but if we get there from Ohio and Indiana, we need 
not fear that we shall not have the lion’s share of its exchan¬ 
ges. And yet we have strangely and for years, and with our 
eyes awake, neglected this superb placer of mineral, agricul¬ 
tural and other wealth, and never broken in upon the slum¬ 
bers of its somewhat pastoral people. If the city of Cincin¬ 
nati continues to pump up by huge engines from the channel 
of the river to the top of the highest hill her daily supplies 
of water, which are distributed under ground to every house, 
it is because she can not do any better. But if she stood 
over a lake of pure, fresh water, a furlong deep, and inex¬ 
haustible, where the Artesian process would reach it, in half 
a mile, and then a stream could be brought up as thick as a 
hogshead, to spout several yards high, and flood the streets 
as it does at Louisville, I wonder how long it would be till 
the auger found the water ? Unless some gentlemhn sug¬ 
gested that the work was already perfect at Louisville, and 
that we had better lay a hundred and fifty miles of pipe and 
depend on her surplus, I suppose it would hardly be many 
days till something was done. And yet the Artesian process 
is not required to gather untold gold in the heart of the 
Southern country; but only a continuous railroad of eighty 
miles, at a cost of two millions of dollars. Perhaps we had 


10 


as well not decide, however, till the Tennessee delegations 
have gone away from us to Louisville, and wait for her to 
decline, for if she accepts, it is perfectly certain that the op¬ 
portunity returns no more. I am authorized to state, that if 
the Knoxville committee, whose mission is to connect with 
the Ohio valley at Cincinnati or Louisville, having made their 
offer to the former without success, shall prevail at Louisville, 
they will close at once. 

THE MEANS TO BUILD THE SOUTHERN ROAD. 

That brings us to the consideration of our means to make 
any Southern connection, for we will be required to con¬ 
tribute in any event one million, and from two to three times 
that amount if we do not go by Knoxville. My amendment 
proposes to accept the Knoxville route as being most eligible, 
and to turn over all the railroad assets of the city of Cincin¬ 
nati to aid our private subscriptions and fill up a part of the 
gap of eighty miles. The reasons of selecting the Knoxville 
proposition I will give afterwards. The private subscriptions 
can readily be had because our capitalists are all deeply 
interested in the Southern railroad connection, and if they 
can be made to see it as I do, they will subscribe freely. At 
least three to five hundred thousand dollars ought to be ob¬ 
tained from that source, and perhaps it is proper to expect 
the radiating roads out of Cincinnati also to contribute even 
more, especially those who have not only an interest in the 
business of the new route; but also in the developments 
which I propose to make of their relations to the city. The 
Covington & Lexington road has an additional reason which 
may be stated. The present owner bought it at a judicial 
sale made by its creditors, and if he did not purchase the 
charter as well as the corporate property, he may possibly 
manage his road, but he becomes individually liable on all 
the contracts, besides other serious annoyance. He will 
consider whether he has not particular incentives to co¬ 
operation. 

The transfer by Cincinnati of her railroad assets, involves 
an explanation which want of time necessarily makes imper¬ 
fect ; but I can state what I know so intelligibly, that my 
fellow citizens may make up their minds that there is some¬ 
thing to be got by perseverance, and that the way to get it 
is to have the matter sifted by interested parties. What are 
our railroad assets ? Mostly , claims on certain railroads having 


11 


termini here, which received a portion of what is known as 
“the million loan ” under the law of Ohio of 20th March, 1850. 
That law authorized the city to lend its credit in any amount 
not exceeding $1,000,000, to such roads. Wm. B. Cassilly 
was President of the Council, and George Graham Chairman 
of the Committee of Finance, and their approbation of any 
transaction was necessary. It was left to the latter to 
secure compliance w T ith all the formalities. 

I have only been able to possess myself of some of the 
particulars of these miserable dealings with the interests of 
the city. 

THE LOANS TO THE ROADS OTHER THAN THE MISSISSIPPI. 

In 1850, our community was crazy about railroads, and 
ready to make them large advances. The Companies coming 
and going to and from Cincinnati were not slow to take ad^ 
vantage of our condition, and get heavy subscriptions. 

The 14 th March , 1850, the Hillsboro’ Railroad got an act 
passed, authorizing the city specially to subscribe $100,000 
to its capital stock in thirty year 6’s, or lend it that sum, 
provided the citizens so voted at the April election. No se¬ 
curity for the city wa3 provided ; but she was authorized to 
pledge all her property to redeem her own bonds! This was 
probably thought rather too bald a proceeding, and therefore 
further railroad legislation "was devised against the interests 
of the city, but requiring the appearance at least of security ; 
and no doubt intended to be very insecure. And the object 
was accomplished as follows : 

The 20^/i March , 1850, the Legislature passed an act “ to 
authorize the city of Cincinnati to loan its credit to railroads” 
going into the city to the amount of a million of dollars. The 
Covington and Lexington road was also included. Sec. 5 
provides that before issuing the bonds to the roads, in such 
sums as the Council may approve, a vote of the citizens at 
the regular spring or fall election shall be taken, and if in 
the affirmative, the bonds shall be issued. Sec. 7 says that it 
shall be the duty of the Council to secure hy mortgage , etc., of 
stock , etc.; or such other lien or security , real or personal , as 
may be mutually agreed on by the Company and Council, the 
payment of the bonds and the interest. 

It appears by a list of city property that she has now 
$100,000, in Little Miami Railroad bonds, $100,000 Hills¬ 
boro’ road, $100,000, in Covington & Lexington road, 


12 


$150,000, each, of the Eaton and Marietta roads, and 
$600,000, of the Mississippi road, $1,200,000, on which the 
city pays interest annually of about $70,000, although the 
Railroads agreed to do so, as the Missouri roads on $25,000,* 
000, ol State bonds have also agreed to do in that State, but 
have not done, and never can. No plummet will ever sound 
the depths to which that abuse of State credit, (doubling the 
private subscriptions) will sink the fortunes of Missouri and 
St. Louis, and that speedily. I believe that the Little Miami, 
Covington, Marietta, Eaton, and Hillsboro’, applied for their 
amounts under the conditions of the law; and I presume that 
the proposition of Council put to the vote of the Citizens was 
that the bonds were to be lent as so much money and secured 
by a mortgage on the road itself as the first lien ; and that it 
was so voted by the people. There were good officers then 
in the Council who were up to the dodges of dishonesty. 

The Chairman of Finance, (Geo. Graham,) would not 
deliver a bond to these roads under the ordinance and pro¬ 
ceedings of Council and the citizens until first he received 
bonds and mortgages from each road for its amount. Second, 
approved them ; third, sent his messenger to the Recorders 
of every county through which they passed in Ohio and Ken¬ 
tucky to have the mortgages recorded. Fourth, received 
them back here with the Recorder’s certificates on the papers 
that they had been recorded properly. Then, he issued the 
bonds to all but the Hillsboro’ Company, in which case, he 
required receipts of the Commission merchants at Sandusky 
that the track iron for the road was arriving and had arrived, 
and then he ga yq pro rata checks on New York. It was an 
unprecedented proceeding, and cost the officer his place prob¬ 
ably, for the next Council organized without him. And when 
we consider it calmly it was offensive to him to have required 
a loan law to be literally observed. 

The only subsisting mortgage that I have found is that of 
the Eaton road on all its property, to secure $25,000 bonds, 
and also the residue of $150,000, dated 29th December, 1850. 
The other mortgages are said to have been released, the 
power to do which is questioned by lawyers. As a sample 
which gives due credit to the proper parties to the record 
and their coadjutors in Council, a similar mortgage to the 
Eaton, (and probably all the others,) I find was executed by 
the Hillsboro’ Company, August, 1850: Recorded 30th April, 
1851: Released by airection of Council of 2d Feb. ; on the 


13 


12th Feb., 1853, Andrew Griffin, President; Joseph Blun~ 
dell, Recorder. The Council in advancing to railroads, must 
pursue the mode provided, and having pursued it, are bound; 
and if they wanted to release mortgages they held as not 
only implied, but express trustees for the people, it would 
require legislation and a new vote to restore the already ex¬ 
hausted power over the subject matter. The city can get 
something probably out of a rigorous prosecution of these 
claims. We come now to a different case, where there was 
no mortgage of the road, but the citizens voted to lend on 
that condition alone, and the bonds could only be so issued; 
either there is a lien on the Company’s real estate, or the 
bonds are void, in all legal probability. 

THE MISSISSIPPI ROAD ALSO APPLIED FOR A LOAN. 

On the 20th September, 1850, it was resolved by Council 
to refer the question of granting the loan of $600,000, to the 
Mississippi road to the people at the ensuing October elec¬ 
tion ; the loan to be City bonds of that amount at thirty 
years. The resolution also provided that the money should 
be expended in the construction of the road ; and that the 
“ bonds” should be secured by a mortgage upon such property 
of the Company as the Council should require , with satisfac¬ 
tory security for the prompt payment of the interest. The 
people voted it; and the 29th August, 1851, Council recited 
these matters in an ordinance, and that they would lend the 
$600,000, to the Company on its bonds secured by a mort¬ 
gage on the road pursuant to all the prior steps taken in 
the business. The President and Recorder of the Council 
were authorized to execute these conditions, and to issue and 
deliver bonds for $600,000. We were then as safe as possi¬ 
ble for that amount, and would be able to-day to tell our 
Southern friends, here is over half a million of dollars which 
we take out of the Mississippi road, and put in the road we 
so much desire to build, following the example of South 
Carolina which has sold out her roads by instalments as soon 
as finished, and so continued the work. But the Mississippi 
Company memorialized Council that they must give somebody 
else the first mortgage on the track , frc., for they could not get 
money otherwise. The subject got into a corner and under 
a cobweb in the darkest angle of the Committee room, where 
they sit by night and in silence, “ two or three gathered 
together,” with somebody who shall be nameless in their 


14 


midst. A report surrendering the citizens’ interest was 
made of course, and with it came out of the darkness an ordi¬ 
nance of the melancholy date 29th December, 18ol, which 
provided that so much of the prior ordinance as required a 
mortgage on the road be repealed, on condition that the 
Mississippi Company would pledge a million of its stock, 
with authority to dispose if they could, of so much of it as 
would realize $600,000, and further, that if they did not pay 
the interest, that they should keep on transferring adequate 
stock. Thus the bars were deliberately laid down, and the 
corn field in full ear was laid open: it was soon stripped; 
even the interest being afterwards got rid of in a dexterous 
purchase and sale, lease and release of the speculation of the 
wharf property. Not a blade of fodder is to be found : all 
gone, and the same vigilant people still shewing their white 
fronts at public meetings, and giving their views and advice. 
Having extricated the Mississippi road from payment of 
interest on the $600,000, till it sold out to Aspinwall; the 
wharf property as it is called, played the splendid two horse 
act of being rented back by the Company from the city for 
$30,000 per annum: to begin however, five years after date, 
giving a personal bond of undoubted men, that they would 
then be sure to pay it punctually. Of course, that was a part 
of the swindle, and never intended to be otherwise than en¬ 
tirely delusive. The bond was signed and sealed by respon¬ 
sible persons and delivered to the Council, who having already 
been diddled out of $600,000 of the people’s money, now had 
good security for high rents if they would only buy the fee 
simple of the wharf property at another half a million. The 
city and her watchful servants walked into what gave no 
warning to the eye, but turned out to be a mouse trap within 
a rat trap, and almost the same size. In fact, these two well 
ventilated edifices contained but one apartment, where we are 
now, corporately speaking, gnawing the rusty wires, for as 
I told you before, or if I did’nt, as you might have known 
without being told, a large part of the fee simple estate proved 
to be leasehold at high ground rents ; and the bond of the 
solid men although drawn by a professional hand in pay of 
the Mississippi Company, lacked a small technicality, and 
has been abandoned by our city government, I hear, as worth¬ 
less. That is among the marvels we ought to examine in 
time for the next spring election. The history of the wharf 
property is important, because by due diligence the city may 


15 


get something out of it. 1 have only space for a glimpse 
into the pit. 

The purchase of the wharf property at Mill-creek from the 
Mississippi Railroad by the city for $500,000 of her 6’s, due 
in 30 years, is decided by the Superior Court to have been 
valid and the bonds good, but the Judge in his opinion states 
that he had very grave doubts about it. The case should be 
reviewed by the Supreme Court, for the decision may be 
reversed. I give a brief statement of the pith of the transac¬ 
tion. The city is forbidden by general law of 1853, to 
authorize any loan or appropriation not predicated on the 
revenues of the current fiscal year. It could not therefore 
predicate a contract on any issue of bonds payable afterwards, 
unless so specially authorized. The authority to buy the 
wharf with botids is claimed to exist in the exception made 
by the law for purchases of permanent property; but the ex¬ 
ception only gives the city in that case power to borrow any 
sum of money not exceeding $500,000, &c. This contem¬ 
plates a cash transaction it may be insisted, between the city 
and proprietors, and was intended to cut up speculation. 
There should be a further investigation, and if the city had 
no power to issue these half million of bonds, they are void 
in the hands of the present holders. 

In 1856, the Mississippi Railroad wanted more money for 
her road, and she leased the wharf property of the city for 
15 years on condition that the interest due on the $600,000 
loan was remitted, and then no rent was to be paid the first 
five years, but for the last ten years $30,000 a year was to be 
paid for rent. Of course, not a dollar of rent was ever paid, 
and even the bond of John Baker and other solvent persons 
securing its payment, was found to have been so drawn by 
Judge Coffin, the Company’s solicitor, as to be valueless it is 
said; but that discovery was only made after the payment of 
the purchase money of the wharf. It would have been serious 
if the city solicitor had found it out before. And perhaps 
the operation if scrutinized, (for which I shall have ample 
time, and a strong inclination) may have been just cunning 
enough to defeat itself. When the Volscians fluttered, some 
Coriolanus had to be about;—and when Rome was saved. 

It is absolutely necessary in taking her stock inventory 
for the city to go into a good deal of garret and cellar work. 
I do not pretend to say that over halt a million can be real¬ 
ized out of the ore which is to be mined from such heaps of 


16 


rubbish, and which may not be found at all. But I say that 
the way to get its rights in these assets is for Cincinnati to 
assist in this great Southern connection by a transfer to 
Trustees of her railroad claims, for they will then be looked 
up, and in the meantime while we can never lose a dollar that 
is not lost already, we can probably render “ material aid ” 
to the first enterprize of the day. If not now secured these 
assets will be forever lost. 

A prospect from this quarter of even half a million ; a for¬ 
tiori , a million and a half opened, our proprietors, merchants, 
manufacturers, and others, will not be so unjust to themselves 
and their city as not to give freely, and the capitalists of the 
interior cities in Ohio and Indiana ought to do the same. 
Columbus, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Fort Wayne, Dayton and 
Richmond, Chillicothe and Madison, and the rest, ought to 
set an example in giving instead of waiting on us. I will be 
disappointed if they do not subscribe, and it shall not be for 
want of reasons and information if I can help it. 

THE KNOXVILLE ROUTE IS THE BEST. 

There are three routes advocated by delegates from the 
South; and a fourth, which is called a compromise, seems to 
have friends in the press, and in the city. The proposed 
routes are via Cumberland Gap, or Morristown, which is 
farthest east; via Knoxville, which lies centrally, and via 
Nashville which is farthest west. The compromise is via 
McMinnville and Chatanooga. 

The amendment I have offered, selects Knoxville as the 
point to be reached by the railroad tap root of Cincinnati. 
This route will, like the others, connect at Danville, 135 miles 
south of us in Kentucky, to which point the Lexington & 
Covington road will be made. Thence it is 143 miles to 
Knoxville, on the other side of the formidable mountains, 
which must be conquered by the two first routes; or encir¬ 
cled by the third, or turned by a circle within a circle, by the 
compromise. 

I am in favor of Knoxville : 

Because , there are only eighty miles of road to be made 
by Cincinnati, over a country presenting no engineering dif¬ 
ficulties of grave importance, against about twice that dis¬ 
tance : because it is the straightest road south, and it pene¬ 
trates the centre of the great void we have before described, 
and commands the whole southern interior where the marbles 


IT 


and metals are finest, the climate and soil best; and the 
reciprocal wants and resources of the sections adapted to 
each other. Because it is the shortest and best route to great 
cities of the Gulf and the Southern Atlantic; to New Orleans, 
843 ; to Mobile, 743 ; to Pensacola, 7t0; to Charleston, 060, 
or only twenty or thirty miles longer than it is to Baltimore 
by her magnificent road. The grade is good for the whole 
distance, and between Nashville and Knoxville, as far as the 
chief Southern distributing point at Dalton, Georgia ; the 
former has a long grade of 106 feet or more per mile, and the 
latter only 38. The distance from Cincinnati to Dalton, 
via Morristown, is 425 miles; by Knoxville, 335; by Nash¬ 
ville, 498. Because , Knoxville has already got constructed 
thirty miles of the road north of her toward Cincinnati, and 
the directors of the K. K. Company pledge themselves to 
reach the Kentucky line in time, thirty-three miles further, 
coming to this west side of the Cumberland mountain through 
Wheeler s Gap, to meet us ; from there to Danville is only 
eighty miles, which will cost two millions of dollars. Their 
expenditure for a city and county of 20,000 people (with 
about $600,000, from the State to iron and equip the track) 
will be near a million. Wheeler’s Gap is a better crossing 
than Cumberland Gap, and Rabun Gap is the best for the 
B ue Ridge, south of the Cumberland mountains. General 
Hayne insisted on going by Spartanburg in S. C., and Ash- 
ville in N. C., through the valley cut by the French broad 
branch of the Tenn^see River: and he took S. Carolina with 
him, yet he afterwards changed his mountain route via Knox¬ 
ville, but clung to his valley line below. Mr. Calhoun always 
insisted that the outlet of S. Carolina was via Rabun Gap, 
and Wheeler’s Gap running through Knoxville on the line 
now proposed, known as the Blue Ridge Railroad, and to the 
prosecution of which S. Carolina has pledged her credit, and 
which she intends to carry out. * Because , not only the 

* it is appropriate in this place (Merchants? Exchange ) made sacred to Free trade and 
Mr. Calhoun by the long debate of li-SSI. and the consequent change of public opinion North 
West, irom the Clay and Jackson tariff policy, to recount one more great passage of the 
South Carolina Senator’s life. It relates to the subject now discussed. lie doubted the cor¬ 
rectness of Ila.vne’s judgment about the Spartanburg and French Broad and Cumberland Gap 
route for the Northern and Southern Railroad. He lived at a place near Anderson, and knew 
the Rabun Gap J and his probbm was to find a passage through the next mountains better 
than the Cumberland Gap. He set out on foot with his son. and his instruments, (levels 
made by himself) and traced the present route via Knoxville and Wheeler's Gap, ami pro¬ 
nounced it the proper one. For th* only time in his important career the State refused to 
agree, and Hayne rejected that advice and wisdom which crowned their doctrine so glori- 
ously in the Senate. After Hayne's death, the opinion of the State changed, and sbe has ever 
since by great preponderance.gone for the Blue Ridge mad, and is hound by every conside¬ 
ration of prudence and gratitude to her great man whose mantle awaits in her custody a gian 

2 




18 


engineering and financial obstacles are small, but the special 
legislation of such enterprizes is already obtained, from Ken¬ 
tucky, and enables us to go directly from Covington or New¬ 
port, if terms cannot be made with the Lexington Road, as is 
not probable. The recent complications of that road will help 
to perfect our plans. It is so important that we shall have 
no trouble with the legislature of that noble state, that I dwell 
a moment on the explanation of this fortunate condition of 
things. 

The charter of the Knoxville and Kentucky Company, 
passed 25th Feb., 1856, authorizes the building within five 
years, of a road from Knoxville to the Kentucky, and gives 
it $10,000 a mile State aid, to furnish iron for the track as 
fast as individual subscriptions make the grade. This road is 
about half done ; and we are assured by two of the directors 
present that it will be completed sixty-three miles to the end, 
through Wheeler’s Gap, in time to meet any connection with 
Cincinnati. This charter authorizes consolidation of the road 
with such a railway connection, and the two directors offer to 
give up all control of the whole work to those who make it 
from this side. One year before that charter, 10th March, 
1854, some of the wise men of the city, in order to secure a 
Southern road to the Gulf, by either Cumberland Gap or 
Wheeler’s Gap, got the charter of a u Kentucky Union Rail¬ 
way Company” from that State. Seven of the Commission¬ 
ers who are named in the act were residents of Cincinnati, 
and any two of the whole number hav^the power to open 
subscriptions at such time and place as they may choose. The 
capital stock is five million of dollars, in $100 shares, and as 
soon as five thousand shares are subscribed, the organization 
may be completed by the election of nine directors, who have 
power to survey, locate and construct a nil way to the Ten¬ 
nessee line at either Gap. The Company may borrow its 
money, or get it by shares of stock ; and it may receive coun¬ 
ty and city subscriptions. It may consolidate with the Knox¬ 
ville and Kentucky Company or another road in that direc¬ 
tion ; and only five thousand dollars will be required in cash 
to begin, for the charter says one dollar a share only at the 
time of subscribing is necessary to be paid, and five thousand 

like him. who takes an easy place primus inter pares in the statesmen’s Pantheon of our 
age. In the rea'.m of politics and metaphysics he had no need of any pioneer, but carried in 
his head and heart the best chart and compass of the post revolutionary times. His explana¬ 
tions of systems and doctrines will stand as long as the Constitution to which they all relate, 
and it seems th it he was competent to lead his countrymen the best way on the map to their 
destination, and mark it with his axe. In the concrete, his logic is as admirable as in those 
models of reasoning which can never pass away but with civilization. 




19 


shares thus represented will organize the Company. So far, 
then, as the legislative element is wanted for our Southern 
connection, it has already been procured from the wisdom of 
Kentucky. 

There are 20 miles finished from Anderson to Clayton, 
leaving 120 miles to Knoxville, of which 16 miles south of 
Knoxville has been already graded : the piers across the river 
at that City are already built, and it is nearly certain that 
South Carolina will conquer the difficulty at Rabun Gap 
which is not lofty, for the head waters of the Ohio river run 
thence west, and those of Savannah river south from that 
point. The Blue Ridge road will be finished as soon as we 
can get down to Knoxville; but if it should not we are still 
nearer the Gulf cities than all the other routes there, and 
also to Charleston. 

As to the Morristown route near Cumberland Gap the first 
answer to it is that if it comes up as far from Charleston as 
Paintrock and Morristown, for the next fifty miles it will 
have to cross the Clinch, Holston, and other sources of the 
Tennessee river at the cost of a million and a half besides 
what the State advances, ($10,000 a mile, $70,000 bridge 
money) and you are no nearer Danville than you are on the 
Knoxville road at the Kentucky line. It is better for Mor¬ 
ristown to go down the East Tennessee and Georgia Road 
from that place to Knoxville and there take the route we pro¬ 
pose. But S. Carolina is wedded to the Blue Ridge road and 
will not be likely to go farther than Spartansburg, which will 
leave us hanging for a long time in nubibus , if we go direct 
to Morristown. I know that Virginia will build her road on 
the State boundary westward from Bristol to Cumberland 
Gap, and that thence we should get easily to Norfolk, but 
that is not the Cincinnati route to that grand seaport for 
which a destiny is preparing which it is given to no man to 
foresee. It is the best harbor we have, deepest water, easi¬ 
est exit and eutrance, no ice, nearest our interior and to 
Europe, just on the sea where railroads can run their last pos¬ 
sible mile at their highest speed, and the steamer lies perfectly 
safe from storms and sands, and always can at any moment 
find refuge, or tempt the waves. It is to be the rival of New 
York in after times, for Baltimore has no depth of water, and 
a great part of her shipments is three hundred miles of nav¬ 
igation out of the way; the useless 150 miles up the Bay be¬ 
ing doubled coming down to the point whence the voyage 
should have commenced. Charleston has too little water and 


20 


too much fever to supplant Norfolk, which has too much, if 
anything, of both; but too little of neither. This is the 
Golden Gate of the Golden Age which is to follow our iron 
times, and will show the proudest sight of all the cities of 
the Coast in later days, first to catch the beam of the rising 
sun. and in her mighty bosom to concentrate the heat and 
light of that boundless domain westward which extends to 
his latest setting. 

As to the Nashville route; it is also less eligible than that 
by Knoxville, or Morristown. It is longer even to the south¬ 
eastern cities, New Orleans, Pensecola, Mobile, &c., and 100 
miles longer to Charleston which it can only reach via. Chat- 
anooga, and that is surely serious because Chatanooga has 
a most circuitous route, and pursues it under the greatest tri¬ 
als. The distance to Cincinnati will also be 175 miles, and 
the cost five millions. Nashville has done all she can for 
railroads, and the only reliance will be on perhaps half a 
million of State aid, and then on County and corporation 
subscriptions. But the farmers have no surplus this year, 
and no assurance of the next. And you can not rely on 
roving capitalists from abroad who are in quest of more 
money, and can only afford for greater mineral wealth made 
available to expend their own gold and silver. To get at the 
iron, copper, zinc, marble, coal and other terrene treasures 
you must send out your miners to the ranges of the moun¬ 
tains further east. Besides, where is five millions to be got, 
when two will answer the same purpose via. Knoxville? I 
can understand why Nashville wants the new road although 
she has one, but I do not comprehend how she makes her 
claim clear to us, nor can I be satisfied that she will use 
great exertions to accomplish a thing she has already at¬ 
tained. Her fresh and tide water connections are made; 
why should not Knoxville have them likewise ? It is to the 
interest of Nashville, because it being the best point in the 
State for the Ohio valley above the falls of the river, the 
State will derive from it the greatest benefit; and its capital 
will largely participate. Indeed, if it were needed she might 
profitably vote for a State subscription. I have two inciden¬ 
tal arguments of the Nashville delegation to answer here 
which are good only for her, and not for Cinc ; nnati. They 
say first that our new direct road to Nashville will give us 
competing routes to the South; but so will the other con¬ 
nection more universally: and second, they say they are to 
be in communication with Texas and westward; but the North 


21 


and East from Norfolk to Maine, is worth far more to all con¬ 
cerned, and even to us. 

As for the fourth proposed, or compromise route, it is en¬ 
tirely impracticable: the mountain ranges are to be got over 
or got round; there is no other mode of doing it, unless you 
are resolved on a tunnel of many miles with cold chisels. 
The map shows that these mountains dip gradually to the south 
west; but that Nashville in order to get to Chatanooga can 
not take the air line by McMinville, but has to run off her 
course due south nearly, a long distance and then east at al¬ 
most right angles. McMinville is the point of the compro¬ 
mise route on the west side of the range, but to get over on 
the other side to Chatanooga from there, there is a crescent 
of 35 miles to be made to Tallahoma; when the Nashville 
crescent is reached, and on this double curvature from the 
air line point at McMinville you can only go slowly over a 
distance of 70 miles, at a grade for five miles on the East 
side of 106 feet to the mile, and through a half mile tunnel, 
to Chatanooga. Once there after all this effort, you are as 
near Knoxville as McMinville, on a grade of less than 40 
feet to the mile, and why not better go through Wheeler’s’ 
Gap, to get there, than round Robin Hood’s barn and farmyard 
to boot. It was fate that compelled Nashville to go by any 
kind of rough road and rough riding to Chatanooga; or she 
must forego Charleston or the Atlantic. But is she fox 
enough to spread mutilation, and make steel traps fashiona¬ 
ble ? I have so much regard for her, that I wager she never 
asked the compromise people even to co-operate with her: 
they live probably in the flat countries on the Ohio, and know 
mountains from having heard there are gentle elevations in 
the moon. Such astronomers and philosophers are requested 
to take their eyes off the firmament and fix them on terra 
firrrta with the engineers and explorers and advocates, upon 
actual view of ground, and calculation of cost, of the only 
true route from Cincinnati for a southern connection via . 
Knoxville to the Gulf and Atlantic. There can be no doubt 
of the vast superiority of that southern connection; and we 
should make the selection without any hesitation, and try to 
bring it about. Some are afraid of giving offence to two or 
three other suitors, but I do not see how they are to be saved 
from the grief they must feel at being rejected. In good 
society it is not allowed to hold out hopes to those who have 
asked in vain when there has been consent given to another. 
And others are for committees of citizens to go out prospect- 


22 


ing on our behalf. These will do nothing for the simple rea¬ 
son that the Union Railroad Company will be organized at 
once, elect its officers, and send the engine rs down into 
Kentucky to get the best route for us, and certainly to de¬ 
cide for Knoxville. The interests of the stock-holders will 
be the best guide in the exploration. We may safely trust 
to that, and be comforted. If the present city government 
were to be continued, we might have some trouble with the 
transfer of her railroad property to a trustee to subscribe to 
the Union Company consolidated with the K. K. Company, 
but now that public attention is aroused, there will be changes 
of rulers; and with new masters we shall have new laws and 
advisers.* I think the course of wisdom will be to go on, and 
set our faces resolutely towards Knoxville, with its minerals, 
its railroad connection, its central position, its easy grades, 
its helping hand and its enlightened and indomitable spirit. 

THE SOUTHERN CONNECTION ECONOMICALLY. 

Of course this subject is next in order. There is some¬ 
thing more to do than selecting a route. We must show its 
advantages, for on that depends its construction. The 
amendment asserts that our southern railroad connection is 
important to both sections of the Union, and I purpose to 
give a few facts and reasons to show that it is more impor¬ 
tant than any line of railroad in any direction. The matter 
might be disposed of by one observation which lies on the 
surface, and that is, that the line crosses different latitudes 
which produce not only most valuable, but different products. 
The exchange of them is now exceedingly indirect, ten times 
as long for bulky articles as we propose to make it. The 
Cumberland and Tennessee rivers bring iron of the best 
quality to the Ohio, down stream, and there it has to be re¬ 
shipped for Cincinnati. The voyage is often 2,000 miles; 
and the enterprise pays although the money is only realized 
in several months. North and south roads have this advan¬ 
tage over lines east and west: on the latter it is a sale of 
nearly the same things at a light profit, on the former it is 
exchange of dissimilar things at a very heavy one. And the 

* This transfer to a trustee is indispensible because of the reading of the 8th Sec. of the 
6th Art. of the Constitution : 

“ The General Assembly shall never authorize any county, city, town, or township, by vote 
of its citizens or otherwise, to become a stockholder in any joint stock company, corporation 
or association whatever, or to raise money for, or loan its credit to, or in aid of, any such cor¬ 
poration, company, or association.” 

No doubt this provision was intended to prevent railroad abuses in Ohio which had just be¬ 
fore 1851 taken such fearful liberties with the substance of the people and converted almost 
all public officers into knaves. 



23 


cotton States selling their articles for gold and silver to Eu¬ 
rope by the pound, prefer their staple business to every thing 
else; consequently there is nothing in our region they are 
not ready to buy and able to pay for. 

But let us glance at tbe almost infinite extent of the pres¬ 
ent enterprise. It connects two separate systems of road of 
8,000 miles each, now nearly or quite separated, the Louis¬ 
ville and Nashville road being the only ligament and not yet 
a year old. The whole Mississippi valley is therefore before 
us soliciting examination. It will be worth while to sum up 
its material progress, so that we may all have an idea of the 
vastness of the subject, which is nothing less than to retrieve 
our lost ascendency, and make Cincinnati Queen of the 
greatest empire the sun shines on in the next half century. 
If she can re-occupy the summit of the wealth and intellect 
therein concentrated, since the census has given us the ma¬ 
jority of the federal vote and consequently the government, 
she may become the center of power in the confederation. 
First, let me state the march of population. Before 1790, 
a few savage tribes occupied the wilderness. Cincinnati was 
settled by a handful in 1788. But in 1790 there were 200,- 
000 white people in the valley; in 1800, half a million; in 
1810, a million and a half; in 1820, two millions and a half; 
i n 1830, four millions; in 1840, six millions; in 1846, nine 
millions, or nearly half the people of the U. S.; and in 1860, 
quite one half, perhaps over, thirteen millions. There has 
been a still greater increase of commerce. In 1817, above 
New Orleans to the Alleghenies, 20 hundred ton barges mak¬ 
ing one trip a year, and 150 keel boats of a hundred and 
thirty tons making three trips, did all the business of the 
Ohio and Mississippi rivers, with 6500 tons capacity. In 
1843, 450 steamers of 200 tons existed; 90,000 tons, worth 
$80 00 per ton, $7,200,000; 16,000 persons were employed, 
and the annual expense was 12 millions of dollars; 4,000 
flats employed at the same time 20,000 persons. All these 
craft earned two millions of dollars a year for freights on 
one hundred and twenty million dollars of U. S. products, 
and one hundred million dollars of other: equal to two hun¬ 
dred and twenty millions. In 1846, the property carried rose 
to $300,000,000; and the other items in proportion. In 
1860 these estimates are all greater notwithstanding the ac¬ 
tivity and extent of railroads, and may be almost doubled on 
1843. 

But there is a larger increase in agricultural products, for 


24 


in the beginning of this century they were nothing ; and this 
year they will be enormous; their increase maybe estimated 
by two items only: the corn crop of the Union will not be 
short of one thousand million bushels and the wheat crop 
two hundred millions, half of which will be exportable, or 
six hundred millions of bushels, and will realize immense 
profit; to the Mississippi Valley alone more than a hundred 
millions of dollars on these two staples. 

And if we could calculate the increase of manufactures 
we would ascertain results quite astonishing, and equally to 
the credit of our favored locality. From the smallest begin¬ 
nings they have assumed stunendous proportions. In the 
State of Ohio alone eighty millions, and nearly double that 
amount in the four States referred to so often; but hardly 
as much more in all the Mississippi Valley. 

The Mississippi Valley contains about 12,000,000 square 
miles, and has three divisions, the first, of which the river 
is the centre and which is drained by its tributaries, extend¬ 
ing east and west to the mountains and filling up the temper¬ 
ate zone north and south. Then we have the region south¬ 
west including Texas, and south-east as far as cotton flour¬ 
ishes. This valley is par excellence the agricultural region 
of the Union and of the world. It only wants a fair remun¬ 
eration for its labor, and wise administration for its affairs to 
attain a development never attained before. Its products 
are various and its people different; and its first necessity is 
that it be linked together by both feelings and ii terests. It 
is the granary of the civilized world to which the present 
wants of Europe have njore than ever turned her statesmen’s 
eyes. It can feed and clothe more people cheaper and bet¬ 
ter than any competitor; it already boasts the length of its 
railroads and telegraphs and the size and beauty of its steam 
fleet. The industrious habits, the hardy pursuits, the high 
spirit of its people are the country’s strength in peace and 
will be her defence in war. The sea as well as the land 
forces must look to the thousands of population inured to la¬ 
bor and to the steam engine, in all its applications, for the 
mass of future soldiers and sailors of the Republic. In a 
military view there is no Atlantic seaboard or other public work 
half so important to the Union for defence as the southern 
route from the Ohio river. “ It would,” says Dr. Drake in 
his report to the citizens of Cincinnati, 15th August, 1835, 
“ afford facilities for the transportation of troops, munitions 
of war and military sustenance, from the centre to the bor- 


25 


ders, or even from one frontier to the other with unexampled 
rapidity; thus forming a concentration favorable to national 
defence in time of war which could not otherwise be effected, 
and which would present a new triumph of civilization over 
barbarism, by making civil public works an efficient substitute 
for standing armies, and powerful navies, which exhaust the 
resources and endanger the liberties of a nation.” 

Within the heart of the Mississippi Valley lie in quadrangle 
the four States which it is proposed to-night to unite imme¬ 
diately by railroad. They lie two and two separated by the 
Ohio, but side by side. Indiana is as closely connected with 
us as Tennessee with Kentucky, and the latter are identified 
on one map in Colton’s Atlas. In round numbers they con¬ 
tain one hundred thousand square miles. Ohio has two mil¬ 
lions and a half of people and the other States a million each, 
say 5,500,000 or one-fourth of the Union and nearly half 
the population of the great valley, so that we are largely in¬ 
terested in the Federal property, policy and destiny. We 
are the owners of every fourth ship, fort, dock, acre of pub¬ 
lic land, &c., &c. We are all stupendously in debt; say for 
public debts fifty millions, and for private five hundred mil¬ 
lions, but our people are intelligent and highly prosperous 
notwithstanding. By a few statements about Ohio, we can 
form an estimate of our strength and our duty to ourselves 
and our confederates. If one of the quadruple allies is so 
powerful what would they all four be if they opposed even 
vis inertiae to bad men and bad measures, and especially if 
they united in advocating good? We have seen what is the 
total area of the valley and its population. 

The canals of the Union are about 5,000 miles, cf which 
Ohio owns almost a fifth; the railroads 30,000 miles, of 
which she owns a tenth. All the railroads cost one thousand 
millions of dollars, of which half is paid and the other half is 
debt at interest possibly not to be paid, but owing 30 millions 
a year to creditors. The income is 55 millions of dollars, 
leaving 25 millions available. Divide by ten, and we get 
Ohio’s proportion of these results. Of our 25 millions acres 
of agricultural lands, we have 20 millions in farms, ten mil¬ 
lions cultivated. Average of farms, 100 acres ; and 300,000 
owners, or a million and a half engaged in agriculture. Our 
annual products are : agriculture, $150,000,000 ; manufac¬ 
tures, $80,000,000; mechanics, $50,000,000 ; carrying, 
$10,000,000 ; mining, $10,000,000 ; say $300,000,000; 
the per annum produce of half a million of men and as 


26 


many women, and children able to work and of a thousand 
millions of property. But time and space fail for further 
detail, if it were necessary, as it is not, for it must be 
evident that the matters at stake in the final action of 
Cincinnati upon this occasion, have not been exceeded in any 
period of her history. She is to decide the question of 
questions. 

But I must speak of the social importance of the Southern 
railroad connection. We ought to establish that cordiality 
for our neighbors and confederates which becomes the in¬ 
habitants of a vast, free county, under one political system. 
That duty has been controlled by Providence, and its per¬ 
formance has awaited the almost supernatural advent of 
railrDads and telegraphs; for the map has been so arranged 
that otherwise we could only have very limited intercourse 
with our fellow citizens of the South. Rivers being the natu¬ 
ral channels of trade, we have followed them as they led 
off to the remote South-West corner, where we found none 
of the residents of that great region lying on the Gulf and 
and Atlantic from Norfolk to New Orleans, and from our 
river Ohio to the salt water. At New Orleans, the Western 
farmer has not met the Southern planter who is so rich a 
customer, but the Yankee commission merchant, and so they 
have been strangers to one another. In fact, it has always 
been since my recollection, my desire to see people who came 
from Raleigh, Augusta, Charleston ; or to know Western 
people who had been through the dangers and difficulties said 
to be insuperable to families and to property, and besetting 
the road. I have had a desire for twenty years to visit 
Washington county, Virginia, which was the adopted home 
of my Irish grandfather, and expect to live to accomplish it; 
but believe I have given up the idea of standing on King’s 
Mountain, where he was killed in battle. The barriers to 
intercourse have been formidable; and the alienation of 
feeling between the sections of the Union, West and South, 
has no other reasonable foundation : that conquered, all else 
will be sure to yield. We all know the case of the Israelites 
related in Genesis, and illustrating the condition of the world 
at our own doors after over two thousand years. It proves 
that dwell where and how we will, human nature dwells with 
us, and that we should correct the acerbity of our lives now, 
by the history of Egypt. There was a famine there, as the 
Southern States are likely to have something of the kind; 
and the Canaanites came up to buy corn of Joseph, the prime 


27 


minister of Pharaoh, who had abundance of it. So our 
Tennessee friends to-day have cash in their pockets to buy 
seed wheat, for the crop with them has perished. We have 
it to sell; and what happened in Africa may easily happen 
to us. The application at first for corn to the valley of the 
Nile, was followed by intercourse and settlement, of great 
advantage to both parties, as this visit of Tennessee for rail¬ 
roads and supplies will surely become if we know how to turn 
it to account. If you remember your Bibles, the peculiar 
calling of the Israelites was “an abomination ” in the eyes of 
the Egyptians ; they were only shepherds—nomades—who 
presented themselves in rags for bread, and finally sold them¬ 
selves and families into slavery to get it. In the present 
case, the guests we have received and listened to for several 
days, are slaveholders who are not only strangers, but are 
obnoxious to the over righteous residents of the free States; 
but they have plenty of money to buy our surplus, and they 
have also very valuable commodities to sell. They ask us to 
help them and to help ourselves, to get wiser and richer by 
contact than we were before : and the decision we make in¬ 
volves an immense amount of social and political happiness, 
as well as matters of profit, and years of accelerated develop¬ 
ment. That our prejudices cannot hold out against the railroad 
and telegraph, 1 would if I had space, quote from Buckle’s 
elaborate work to prove where he gives the melioration 
of feeling between the French and English peoples in con¬ 
sequence of steam communication. It is enough to put 
abolitionists and slaveholders at once on speaking terms. £ 
advise them to make haste and read it, instead of giving 
themselves up to their old habits of mutual bitterness and 
denunciation. They might as well hasten on with the age, 
for they will find by examining the history of other nations, 
their own case anticipated with all its aggravation. 

In a political point of view the consequences of this com¬ 
munication every day, and every hour, between the West and 
South will be of the utmost value. There is a question of 
domestic policy about which the Union is supposed to near 
its end. And the West can truly claim that she has had 
very little to say in the wretched business. She has been 
called North during the controversy, and possibly thought 
that was her name; but it is a misnomer, she is not North, 
but West; and further than that, she is not properly any 
party; but a natural arbiter between the parties. She is 
strong enough and wise enough when she comes to her senses, 


28 


to adjust that momentous issue and she will do it, and this 
very railroad proceeding is one of the pioneers of the decree 
which she will render finally, for the comfortable close of 
the negro agitation. The quadrangle of States to be clasped 
in one embrace by the Union Railroad with their capitals at 
Knoxville and Nashville, Louisville and Cincinnati, can far 
more easily preserve liberty and the Constitution than the 
quadrangle in Italy can continue tyranny. Before the steps 
of Garibaldi and the Revolution, despotism must yield its 
strongholds at Mantua, Verona, Peschiera and Legnano ; but 
nothing can prevail against the Confederation if we do now 
confirm the alliance pointed out by nature, strengthened by 
good works, and consecrated by Providence to their mission, 
which ought henceforth to exist between the four States and 
four cities of the Great Valley. Not alone on the pending 
question, but on many and perhaps, greater, which are to 
arise in the future, a cordial union of our obvious internal 
interests, will draw after it all the firm faith and cooperation 
which copartnership requires, and establish the doctrine that 
we do not live under the caprice of any majority whatever, 
either of great States or of population, but under a written 
compact called the Constitution which is the only arbiter of 
truth and justice for every member of the whole confedera¬ 
tion. We need as little government as possible, and never 
that sort which does wrong because it has the power, and 
right only on compulsion. We want to have a domestic policy 
founded on the rock of State Rights; and we want a foreign 
policy copied after that superior wisdom which raake3 trade 
perfectly free between the States. We have long enough 
suffered under the interested legislation for special places 
and pursuits. The West and the South at this auspicious 
moment of our history have the clearest common path to pur¬ 
sue together for taking possession for their products of the 
markets of the world. Is it possible that we will lose the 
present golden moment, and the grand highway communica¬ 
tion which so auspiciously bid us launch ourselves on a new 
and unparalleled career ? Cincinnati, I know, has men and 
women enough to prompt her best decision of the pending 
question, however there may be some, who mistake their 
duty. It is true, as the amendment declares, that the 
Southern connection is to us on all accouuts, economically, 
socially and politically, worth more to us than any other 
railroad; and it is equally true that the Knoxville route com- 


29 


bines all the advantages, and is not embarassed by any draw¬ 
backs. 

It is now nearly the time of the equinox. By some law of 
nature, the darkness which has been steadily advancing upon 
the light will for months, more than equally divide its empire, 
but not forever. In the continual struggle, victory will not 
be steadfast, for light will at least alternate with darkness, and 
that perpetually. I take some comfort on this great occasion 
from my knowledge of astronomy. I apply the example of 
the heavens to the earth; and to the science of the solar sys¬ 
tem liken the constellation of the iutellectual. In men’s 
minds, error can not establish an empire ; but the truth is 
mighty, and will rise to dispute that empire, and occasionally 
prevail. The past blindness of Cincinnati to her most obvi¬ 
ous interests and duties, will now give way for awhile to a 
season of intelligent vision, and of vigorous reform, to be fol¬ 
lowed, doubtless, at some future day by that periodical per¬ 
verseness and wilfulness, which is the discipline of genius and 
virtue, and the hard condition of human improvement. 


TO MY READERS. 

It will be difficult for you to comprehend why my speech 
was interrupted ; and yet when treating the most important 
parts of the subject there was a persistent effort, especially 
towards the close, to silence me by clamor. The Mayor, Mr. 
Bishop, is a very inefficient chairman, and made no attempt 
for one instant to keep order. Indeed, he began the disor¬ 
der, and, probably, with premeditation; for when I was urg¬ 
ing my audience, by the history of the I alls Canal, to make 
a decision in favor of an immediate Southern connection by 
railroad, he stopped me, and suggested that this was a rail¬ 
road meeting, and my canal argument was irrelavant. It 
was his expectation to prevent me from proceeding, but he 
failed. I went on. When I came, however, to the general 
discussion of the value of the Southern country and its 
trade and intercourse, economically, socially and politically, 
there was an uproar which did not prevent my speaking, 
though I could not be heard. By a vote of the house taken 



30 


after the struggle had lasted half an hour, I was declared 
out of order and sat down. Of course this was a mere sub¬ 
terfuge. The next man who interrupted me after the Mayor, 
was a large speculator in the White Water Canal, and it was 
plain that interested persons were prompting others, and ex¬ 
erting themselves to suppress discussion. No one else offer¬ 
ed to speak on behalf of the city to -which three or four pro¬ 
positions, as you have seen, were made: and I had patiently 
heard them all, had duly reflected, and had no doubt of what 
ought to be done. I, therefore, as I gave notice previously, 
took the floor to advocate the Knoxville route . That route 
is a fixed fact—there is none other that the citizens of Cin¬ 
cinnati will approve, let ever so many committees report to 
the contrary. The argument is unanswerable in its favor ; 
and no attempt will be made to answer it, and it is in vain 
now to try and put the people to sleep; one good effect of 
the scene in the Merchants' Exchange has been to determine 
the public mind on the Knoxville route absolutely. The 
reason I was not fully heard was that I could not be answer¬ 
ed ; and, also, that I had to show up the incompetency of 
public officers now holding and seeking trusts. In addition, 
it is the vulgar habit of a Cincinnati audience, composed ex¬ 
clusively of men, to be content with ignorance or half know¬ 
ledge, and furious with one who teaches them, no matter 
how competent to the task. The sooner that habit is chang¬ 
ed, the more prompt will be the rise of our reputation in the 
country. It is part and parcel of the caucus system by 
which all intellectual hierarchy is abolished among us ; and 
the noise makers and impertinents put forward instead of 
backward, as should be done in public assemblies. Govern¬ 
ment is the reflection of society, like a face in the glass, and 
until that reform, we can only expect to find what we see 
at Cincinnati, a great city disorganised and demoralised in 
every part, and in none more so than in its officers. It has 
followed from our abject humiliation under the caucus, that 
no discussion is allowed of the gravest interests, and no ac¬ 
countability is enforced on servants. Cincinnati has gone 
under the yoke of a few strangers to the mortification of her 
old citizens, and to the amazement of every bcdy. The 
Mayor is a stranger, the Police Judge another, the Treasurer 
another, that first officer of a city, the Auditor, is another, 
and so is the Solicitor. I should not object to have one 
office occasionally filled in that manner, but to have all 
thrown away, is proof of a fatal apathy, and also of the pres- 


31 


ence among us of some sinister but irresistible influence hos¬ 
tile to the fair play or even the existence of self-government. 
It will be wise to have not only a change of masters, but a 
change of system. I call upon my fellow citizens to remem¬ 
ber the scene at the Exchange, especially the conduct of the 
Chairman, and of Councilman Eggleston, who asserted sev¬ 
eral times positively that my statement that the city railroad 
mortgages had been taken and recorded in the counties was 
incorrect, and did not retract after I had proved it by Mr. 
Graham ; and of ex-Councilman Keck, who called order and 
insisted that I was not speaking to the amendment! I trust 
that I have due compassion for empty men, and know that it 
is as hard for them to stand upright as empty bags; but I 
want them either to be filled or to collapse, and not to par¬ 
ade publicly their lack of contents. There were at the meet¬ 
ing a set of shallow jacks, and wicker johns and demijohns 
with wide waistbands and small hats, the gurgle of whose 
throats has always disturbed the calm reasoning and sober 
judgment ofimankind, as their coarser brethren fill the jails and 
infirmaries. Let my fellow citizens ask themselves what would 
be the value of a Court House if all the lawyers were silenced 
but those who agreed with the judge, and what is the worth 
of public meetings of citizens where opinions are not opposed 
and compared by the audience ? 

On my own account, I shall ever dispute the ground with 
this attempt to suppress the reason by brute force. Let 
whosoever else make default, I will see to it, and have my 
friends on the spot and well instructed. I was entirely de¬ 
serted by all the cultivated gentlemen there, and I shall 
hereafter depend on plainer people. Messrs. King and 
Elagg, after Eggleston had been driven to the wall by Mr. 
Graham, and when they were in favor of the Knoxville route, 
and knew that there was no use for any bogus committee of 
citizens to bother the engineers of the Union Railroad Com¬ 
pany which will settle on the route, grouped myself and Eg¬ 
gleston together as for and against it, and procured the lay¬ 
ing of the amendment on the table. Neither of them made 
any effort to bring the house to order. I suppose that is the 
way our thinkers have got into, because they must resort to 
either hypocricy or humbug, for fear they will feel the rod 
ot rudeness themselves. Indeed, it may be asserted that our 
men of ability stay away from public and primary meetings 
of every sort, because both of the bad manners, and abso¬ 
lute danger of such places. And yet this is called a demo- 


cracy. It may be objected that I should have desisted when 
the house became outrageous. But I think not. I have had 
a great deal of such experience, as every leader will, and I 
intend to put myself against it a good deal more. I have 
settled my conduct long ago; and for the men affected, and 
the principles at stake, one ought never to surrender. Dur¬ 
ing the clamor, I -recalled the time, now twenty years and 
more, when Ellwood Fisher, myself and Wm. F. Johnson, in 
that very place, had stood against the town for free trade , 
and won the victory. It cost us nine weeks of adjourned 
debate, and many brutalities. I have seen Mr. Fisher hissed 
for fifteen minutes steadily, while he stood with folded arms. 
Seventeen years ago, 1 spoke for three hours and three 
quarters, against the re-charter of the Banks of Ohio in silch 
an uproar that nobody heard a word; and yet I kept on, and 
finally succeeded in passing the anti-charter resolutions under 
which the banks fell. Now T , those cases are different, but 
they vindicate my perseverance. In the free' trade’ debate, 
we had a Chairman who could be depended on. He called 
order constantly, and requested us to stand fast, till it was 
restored. In the bank debate, (known as the Red Pepper 
Meeting,) we had a Chairman who could not be depended 
on, and who preferred that we should be silenced, and en¬ 
couraged violence. 'I always thought Mr. Fisher right for 
stopping, and myself right in speaking, under the opposite 
circumstances. I appeal to every man t.o say whether when 
a few or many persons try to drown discussion, the Chair 
should not suppress them ; and if he make no attempt to do 
it, and takes sides against the speaker, is he not disgracing 
the position? Mayors of cities, as such, have no business 
presiding over citizens ; it is a servant set over his masters ; 
but such is our total want of sense and our dull conformity, 
that the weakest creature that ever tried to rule a city, gives 
himself that air of superiority which obtrudes and interrupts, 
although it does not comprehend. I have seen now a very 
long procession of dignitaries of the time, rise, strut their 
brief hour upon the stage, and then disappear, and be en¬ 
tirely forgotten. I would give more to hear one man of 
talent and conviction advising his fellow citizens in a great 
matter, than to behold all the biped cothes-horses of Cincin¬ 
nati, in their greatest state, from the flood to the conflagra¬ 
tion. 


74 584 




























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